Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Zynga
puts 'PetVille' out of its misery - (www.sfgate.com)
The loss of a pet can be traumatic, even when
it's a virtual pet. Players of Zynga's "PetVille" have lamented
this week's shutdown of their favorite Facebook game. The end itself wasn't
news - the game was one of a dozen underperforming titles the struggling San
Francisco company decided to ax as part of a strategy announced in November to
cut costs and reallocate resources. But this month on Zynga's online
community forums, "PetVille" players seemed to be holding out hope
that the company would spare one of its oldest games and save the virtual pets
they spent time and money raising. Non-players might view such games as a
waste of time. But Zynga intentionally designed titles like
"FarmVille" and "CityVille" as places players could enjoy
daily as virtual extensions of themselves and their creativity.

Fiscal-cliff
bill retains aid for struggling homeowners - (www.marketwatch.com) Congress’s fiscal-cliff deal
extends a tax break for struggling homeowners that advocates say is key in
supporting distressed communities and the housing market. The Mortgage
Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, signed into law by President Bush, enables
struggling homeowners to avoid paying taxes on forgiven mortgage debt from
short sales or loan modifications. The tax break was scheduled to expire in the
new year, but has been extended through 2013. Without the break, forgiven debt
can be treated as taxable income, and already struggling homeowners would face
taxes from a short sale or loan modification. For example, an underwater
homeowner in the 25% tax bracket could pay $12,500 in taxes for a short sale in
which his house sold for $150,000, but he previously owed $200,000. With the
tax break, the homeowner would not have to pay taxes on the $50,000 of forgiven
debt.

Mutual
Guarantee Society: Spain Proposes State Guarantee of Bank Loans to Small and
Medium Businesses - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com)
Lending in Spain has all but
dried up. Banks don't want to (or cannot) lend because they are capital
impaired and there are too few creditworthy risks. In such an environment,
lending is not wise. It will lead to more losses. But that is not how
government bureaucrats think. Prime minister, Mariano Rajoy is preparing measures to 'desbancarizar' save
the economy and SMEs…The Government is considering the creation of
new instruments for SMEs operate with the State guarantee, which is considered
key to boost economic activity. At the same time, they want to boost mutual
guarantee societies, an instrument in the hands of the regions that did not
just start with all its potential. In parallel, the Ministry of Economy is
betting big on the credits of the ICO for SMEs, about 22,000 million euros in
2013 for self-employed and SMEs.

Former
Icelandic bank executives jailed for fraud – (www.indepdendent.ie) A Reykjavik court sentenced
Glitnir's former chief executive, Larus Welding, and former head of corporate
finance, Gudmundur Hjaltason, each to nine months in jail, of which six months
were suspended for two years. They had denied the charges. Prosecutors said the
two approved a loan to a company which owned shares in Glitnir so that the
company could in turn repay a debt to Morgan Stanley. The decision, taken
outside the regular decision-making process, meant Glitnir was too exposed to
the company and cost the bank at least 53.7 million euros ($71 million), the
prosecution said.